Sony Walkman NWZ-A17B: Upgrade from NWZE384?

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of my Sony Walkman NWZE384 so far. It only set me back about CAD$ 80, but the device kept me plenty entertained for entire days at a very boring day job. The E384 actually replaced an iPod Shuffle that served me well for over a year. Over time, I wanted something with more capacity, a bigger screen, and more battery life. Good things were heard about the NWZE384 and NWZE385, and the price seemed reasonable, so why not? The NWZ385 was a bit more expensive and past that psychological barrier of CAD$ 100, so I went with the cheaper option.

Is it time for another upgrade?

Sony Walkman NWZE384B

Sony Walkman NWZA17B: What has me interested?
Being satisfied with the Sony Walkman, I was delighted to see a new version listed on the Sony Store (.ca version) a few weeks back. The product was advertised on the store as a "Hi-Res Walkman Digital Music Player" with a price tag of CAD$ 299.99. It was significantly more expensive than the 8 GB Walkman I had been using. On the plus side though, the A17 was listed as having a 64 GB capacity.

A lot of other specifications were listed, but the only ones that really caught my attention were the battery life of up to 50 hours, memory card slot, and "Hi-Res" audio. I wasn't exactly using cheap headphones -- Sennheiser Momentum Over-Ears -- so there appeared to be a possibility of having better sound. Not to say the music out of my E384 sounded remotely bad, just that I noticed a potential for improvement compared to my bookshelf speakers.

Sennheiser Momentum Over-Ear Headphones

Backordered...
Unfortunately, even if I wanted to get the NWZA17B, I could not find it available locally. When I checked in mid-December 2014, the Hi-Res Walkman was backordered on the Sony Store. Local electronics chains did not appear to have it either. However, I did find the NWZA17SLV in stock on the American Sony Store for US$ 299.99 at the time I checked.


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